Copyright (c) 2010 Radio Prague (Cesky Rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha)
News Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
By: Christian Falvey
* The new minister of the environment has laid out his priorities
regarding regulation and renewable energy.
* The Czech and Slovak defence ministers have initiated a new work
group to consider options for military cooperation between the two
countries.
* Anti-communist partisan Milan Paumer has died in Prague at the age of
79 let.
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Environment minister wants less paperwork for smaller businesses...
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The new environment minister, Pavel Drobil, says he wants to simplify
and decrease the amount of paperwork his ministry requires of
businesses. In presenting his priorities to reporters on Thursday, Mr
Drobil said that he sees the regulation of small and medium-sized
businesses as ineffective, because they play a negligible role in
polluting the environment. Citing a ministerial analysis from 2008 that
shows that three percent of businesses are responsible for 80% of all
air pollution, Mr Drobil said he wanted to heavily regulate these
polluters while taking the burden off of smaller companies. The
ministry will therefore attempt to simplify the system and decrease the
number of regulated businesses through amendments to laws regarding air
pollution and waste.
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... and change of course in energy legislation.
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In the area of energy, the environment ministry's first policy draft
includes support for biomass, biogas stations and heat pumps in order
to bolster effective and sustainable energy sources. Mr Drobil said
that state grants should not be put towards solar and wind power. The
environment minister wants amendments to the law on renewable energy
sources to ensure the development of prospective sources while not
influencing electricity prices for end-users. The nuclear programme, he
said, would have the ministry's support in ensuring maximum security.
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Czech and Slovak defence ministers initiate work group to consider
military cooperation
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The Czech and Slovak defence ministers have initiated a new work group
to consider options for military cooperation between the two countries.
Meeting in Prague on Thursday, the Czech minister Alexandr Vondra and
his Slovak counterpart Lubomir Galko agreed that transport aviation and
airspace defence were two areas in which greater military cooperation
was feasible; the new team will also discuss collaboration on surface
logistics and military training, science and research. Mr Vondra said
he expected the team's first results in late November, with basic
proposals to be ready next year. Collaboration with Slovak soldiers, he
said, could also be an option should the Czech Republic redeploy
special forces to Afghanistan in 2011, where the involvement of Czech,
Slovak, Polish and Croatian military police is expected.
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Milan Paumer dies aged 79
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Milan Paumer, of Masin brothers fame, has died in Prague at the age of
79 let. The news website iDnes reported on Thursday that he had
suffered from a difficult illness. The controversial Masin brothers
were an anti-communist resistance group who made a violent escape from
communist Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, killing six people, and may have
planned other violent acts against the former regime. Mr Paumer was
recognised by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek in 2008 along with the two
Masin brothers for their willingness to fight against the communist
regime.
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Anti-monopoly office uncovers first cartel
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The Czech anti-monopoly office says it has uncovered its first cartel.
The office announced Thursday that the companies Hokra Spedition,
Inzet, Prominecon Group, CBK Shift and Natural Mystic had coordinated
their bids for a 12 million crown public tender involving construction
oversight and maintenance of military dormitories in the town of
Litomerice. The companies were fined a total of 4.9 million crowns.
Police have investigated 50 people in connection to the case since last
year.
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Chinese city to purchase Czech Expo pavilion
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The Chinese city of Huzhou has expressed interest in purchasing the
Czech pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai, the Czech Press Agency
has reported. The prefecture-level city of roughly 2.5 million
apparently wants to cover all costs to relocate the building to a
lakeside municipal zone, where it would stand at the centre of a
tourist area. No price has been confirmed. The Czech pavilion has been
among the more popular sites at the Shanghai expo, with 3.7 million
people having visited it so far, or 13 percent of the total number of
visitors.
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Flood damage tally in for South Moravia
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Officials have completed calculations of damages caused by early summer
floods in South Moravia. Regional governor Michal Hasek told reporters
on Thursday that the total damage amounted to 316 million crowns
(roughly 16 million US dollars). State and business properties were the
worst affected; damage to state property such as roads and sewage
canals amounted to 160 million crowns. The flooding took one life, that
of a middle aged man who slipped into a river.
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Woman and son suspected of conspiring to murder second son
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A woman and her son are under arrest on suspicion of conspiring to
murder her second son, criminalists in Brno have reported. The
52-year-old woman and her 25- year-old son apparently offered 100,000
crowns and a 15,000 crown advance to three would-be hit men to murder
her older child, with whom they had had long-term disagreements and
property disputes. If convicted they each face up to 20 years in prison.
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Sparta into third qualifying round of Champions League after win 5:0
aggregate win over Latvians
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Sparta Prague have reached the third qualifying round of European
football's Champions League after overcoming Latvia's Liepajas
Metalurgs on Wednesday. The Czech title-holders had won the first leg
3:0 away, and sealed the tie with a 2:0 win in Prague on Wednesday
after scoring twice from free kicks in the first half. Sparta's next
opponents in the competition are the Polish side Poznan.
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Temperatures break records
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Temperatures in the Czech Republic broke records on Thursday, with
highs of 37o Celsius recorded in places. The current record for the
day, in 2006, was almost seven degrees cooler. Temperatures in the
capital city of Prague reached 35.4o by midday. The current heat wave
is not however expected to last much longer; temperatures should cool
to as little as 15o Celsius at the weekend and forecasters predict
heavy storms, hail and windstorms. While July has been one of the
hottest in recorded history, meteorologists say that long stretches of
tropical heat are not unordinary, with more than 30 such cases having
occurred over the last 100 years.
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Weather
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In most of the country conditions are expected to cloud up over the
coming days with scattered showers on Friday and Saturday and a drop in
temperatures to the low 20s Celsius.
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Articles posted on www.radio.cz today
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Panorama
Ivo Laurin, head of the Czech Republic's only word-of-mouth marketing
agency, on new ways to reach consumers
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Ivo Laurin is the director of Outbreak, the Czech Republic's only
word-of-mouth marketing agency. Instead of what's called above-the-line
or ATL advertising, meaning traditional methods such as billboards and
TV commercials, Mr Laurin aims to engage the consumer in conversations
about the product that is at the center of his campaign. And with some
success. Word-of-mouth is sometimes referred to as WoM, and last year
Outbreak received a bronze Wommy, an American award honoring great work
in this cutting-edge form of advertising. Ivo Laurin talks about what
word-of-mouth entails, how it differs from conventional advertising and
what first piqued his interest in the industry.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130062
Current Affairs
Find proves main Czech pilgrimage site Velehrad was settled at time of
Great Moravian Empire, say archaeologists
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Archaeologists have just discovered what they say is the first evidence
that the Czech Republic's most important pilgrimage site was inhabited
during the era of the Great Moravian Empire; pieces of ceramic material
found during a dig at Velehrad are being seen as proof that it was
indeed settled in the 9th century.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130050
Current Affairs
Super Spek Me - man loses six kilos after month of Czech pub food
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You might remember the 2004 documentary Super Size Me, where filmmaker
Morgan Spurlock spent a month eating nothing but McDonalds; the film
documents the drastic effects on his body and soul. There have been
several attempts to emulate his experiment, the most recent here in the
Czech Republic, when a man spent a month eating nothing but Czech food
in pubs and restaurants...and lost six kilos. His diary has now been
released as a book.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130045
Current Affairs
Army embarrassed over headquarters break-in
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The General Staff of the Czech Army has had its headquarters on
Prague's Vitezne Namesti since 1937. It is a massive building which had
never been broken into - until last week. Thieves entered the army's HQ
last Thursday night, apparently well aware of where to go and what they
wanted. The break-in has left the Czech military embarrassed, but also
relieved that apparently no sensitive information was lost.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130043
Current Affairs
TOP 09 takes pole position in opinion poll ahead of traditional
political giants
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Some people may have thought it was a political blip that would soon
lose its allure, but a relative newcomer on the Czech political scene,
TOP 09, appears to be going from strength to strength. A recent poll
suggests it has eclipsed the two traditional parties on the right and
left and is now the people's favorite.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130042
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